Manogue's Charles Oppio endures heartbreak on way to Regional title

Bishop Manogue is the top seed from the North for state and plays Palo Verde at 4 p.m. Thursday. Reno is the No. 2 seed and plays Basic at 1 p.m Thursday. Both games are at Manogue. State moves to Reno High on Friday and back to Manogue on Saturday.
Jim Krajewski

Charles Oppio is in his 26th season coaching the Bishop Manogue baseball team.(Photo: Provided by Manogue athletics)

When Alan died March 29, after a short illness, it was devastating. And that it came a month after Alan’s good friend and business partner, Richard Capurro, died. It was like a sledgehammer. Capurro had been like an uncle to Alan's son, Charles.

Oppio was just starting his 26th season coaching the Bishop Manogue baseball team when the bad news hit, a double whammy of personal losses. But Oppio has led his team to a record-setting season that ended in the school's first large-class Regional title last Saturday. Both Manogue and Reno will compete in this week's Nevada state 4A baseball tournament, which starts Thursday at Manogue.

"My dad was a huge, huge fan of Bishop Manogue baseball," Charles said. "After every game I would have to call him, and if I didn't, my phone would start ringing. I'd call him and tell him about the game and I'd send him the stats. He knew all the kids and their parents. He'd be real proud of the kids right now."

This is the second time Manogue, which won five 3A state titles, has gone to the state tournament since moving to the large-school class.

Oppio said the players have shown resolve and put in extra time this season, taking more grounders and extra batting practice every day.

"It's a fantastic group of kids, one of my favorite groups of kids," Oppio said. "We're not very physically intimidating, but we just have a bunch of role guys, guys who do their thing. You always hear coaches and kids talk about 'on to the next guy' and 'the next guy needs to step up.' Some kids listen to you and some don't."

Buy Photo

The Miners celebrate after winning the Northern 4A Region title last Saturday.(Photo: Tom Smedes/Special to the RGJ)

Manogue senior Angelo Reviglio pitched in the Regional championship game last Saturday.

"He's a little hard on us, but he makes us better players," Reviglio said. "We really know he cares for us, and we wanted to do this for him. We dedicated this season to his dad."

Josh Rolling, who plays shortstop and pitches, said Oppio prepares the team for every possible situation.

"There's nothing we can't handle, in all situations," Rolling said. "He knows what we're all capable of, so if we make a mistake, he knows it's a mental mistake, he gets on us, he lets us hear it."

Alan and Charles Oppio(Photo: Provided by Charles Oppio)

Devastating loss

Mike Quilici, who played football at Nevada, is a long-time family friend of the Oppios. He used to bring Charles and Richard’s son, Keith Capurro, into the Wolf Pack locker room after football games.

“He was very close to his dad,” Quilici said. “It was very tough. His dad absolutely adored Charles, just adored him. His dad was always watching him and I know he was proud of him.”

Quilici said Alan knew all the players on the Manogue and club baseball teams Charles coached every year.

“For Charles to be in the middle of the baseball season, trying to manage all his emotions and all he experienced and to take that team to the Regional title, to me it's just an extraordinary testament to his strength,” Quilici said. “I know how sad he is, how hurt he is. It had to have been awful to try to wade through that.”

Buy Photo

Manogue's CJ Hires is congratulated by teammates after hitting a homerun against Reno in the NIAA 4A Northern Regional Baseball Championship "if game" at Galena on May 12.(Photo: Tom R. Smedes/Special to the RGJ, Tom R. Smedes/Special to the RGJ)

In the summer, Charles would always schedule his club team to play in a tournament in Idaho, where Alan had a ranch near Twin Falls. Alan would go watch their games, then have the team over for a big barbecue.

The Oppio family owned the land where the original Bishop Manogue was built, on East McCarran. That land was sold and eventually became the Sparks warehouse district.

The Oppios bought land in Spanish Springs, for their potato farm. That also became prime land for development and Alan then bought the ranch in Idaho, where developers could not force him to move again.

The Oppios also had cattle and the brand on their left flank is “O P O.” After Alan died, the Manogue players had their hats embroidered with the same lettering.

"The kids did that without me knowing," Charles said. "I didn't notice they took my hats. They took them all in and got them done and gave it to me at practice. It really hit home with me. It meant a lot to me."

Charles calls himself a “fourth-generation farmer.”

He has put his heart and soul into the Manogue baseball program and he takes care of the baseball field at Manogue like a landscaper would. After the softball Regional was rained out last Saturday, he jumped on the tractor and set about repairing the dirt on that field and the turf and he re-painted the lines.

Dave Kulikowski was a pitcher on the first baseball team Charles Oppio coached at Manogue, in 1993. He won the first game Oppio coached and is now an assistant for the team.

He said Charles epitomizes Bishop Manogue.

“The work ethic learned from his dad is taught to the players in our program,” Kulikowski said. “This allows our program to connect the tradition of our alumni with the future Miners.”

Buy Photo

The Bishop Manogue team dog piles as they celebrate their win over Reno in the NIAA 4A Northern Regional Baseball Championship at Galena on May 12.(Photo: Tom R. Smedes/Special to the RGJ, Tom R. Smedes/Special to the RGJ)

Charles said one of the biggest pearls of wisdom he learned from his dad is, “Never pout or feel sorry for yourself. Nobody else will either.”

Charles played baseball, football and basketball at Manogue in the mid-1980s, winning three state baseball titles as a player.

Alan also played sports at Manogue and was named the Pat Monahan Award winner, given to the best male athlete at the school.